OPINION

Hostage to past ailments

Greece is heading toward bankruptcy as the domestic political system is proving to be incapable of handling the crisis.

George Papandreou and his PASOK government are paying a dire price for allying themselves with the Socialist party?s old guard, which is now threatening the very survival of the administration and the vote of the new memorandum.

The two mainstream parties, PASOK and New Democracy, are clearly hostage to pressure from union groups and vested interests, which is undermining their ability to tackle the burgeoning crisis.

You cannot expect the parties responsible for constructing the ailing system of the post-1974 era to knock it down and rebuild a new one in its place.

The safest bet would be for the rival parties to share out the political cost between them and make bold decisions, or perhaps invest in the rise of fresh political forces which are not bound by the populism of the past.

For the time being we are forced to watch the fall of a bankrupt political system.

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